Ara's POV...
I rolled my eyes out of annoyance. Just when I was about to have a normal lunch with my friends, this brat really had to pop out at this hour. I turn around to see a girl with strawberry blonde hair staring at me with a dirty look, of course, along with her annoying little side-kick.
"What do you want?" I ask them with a stern tone.
"Geez, Lexie! That sour attitude wasn't the right way to greet the queen," Bianca says.
"I doubt the dumped girl even understand manners, Bianca," Tracy says. "If she did, she wouldn't get dump."
"You better shut your mouths before I do it for you," I say as rage starts to feel blood.
"Oh, trying to act feisty again I see," Tracy says in an intimidating manner.
"She forgot how ugly she looked while she was drunk that night," Bianca says.
"No wonder Zach decided to dump you after that night. I bet the reason you guys disappeared was just because he could have some fun with you, but well, you weren't good enough to make him stay," Tracy says before bursting out her evil laugh.
Anger starts boiling inside of me. These girl really have no manners that they behave so rude. Knowing well that they are really fearless enough to actually talked so rudely to me made my impulsive side come out. Yup, when anger gets the best of me, sometimes even I find it hard to control myself. Without another word, I grab the cup of pink slushie on my tray and spills it all over Tracy's outfit. I assumed the turquoise top she's wearing today is new.
"What the hell? You wicked witch," Tracy shouts at me in fury, causing the whole cafetaria to have their eyes on us. Well, she was the one who needed attention in the first place.
"That is so low of you," Bianca blurts out.
I turn my head to face Bianca who is staring at me with a discgusted look. She might thought I'm nothing but a discgutsing brat, but well, that doesn't even mean she's better than me. In a quick swift, I grab my plate of mac and cheese and spills all over Bianca's outfit.
"That will teach the two of you to mind your own business," I say as I turn around, but as I was about to walk away from those witches, I could feel a hard grip suddenly pulling my hair, causing a crazy pain in my head, causing me to drop my tray. Damn, I have a feeling a cat fight is about to start.
Suddenly, Bianca steps up in front of me and spills a plate of spaghetti. I don't even know where did she got that, but I assumed she must have grabbed it from a random dude who was sitting not far from the scene. Furious, I struggle to fight back and release my hair from Tracy's grip. I hit my elbow to her stomache constantly in hopes she would eventually let go of me out of pain.
"Let go of me, you jerks," I shout at them.
As the whole cafeteria began to surround us as they watch our argument, two familiar starts running towards are direction. One of them instantly grab both of my hands, while the other one tries to remove Tracy's grip from my hair. Those guys, are none other than Junghwa and Zach, my best friends.
"Let go of her now, Tracy," Zach says in as serious tone. To my surprise, this is actually the first time I heard Zach sounded so serious. He has known to be the childish and cheeky boy, so to see another side of which is more stern is a pretty big surprise.
"Yeah right. Like I'm gonna listen to that brat after she messed up my outfit," Tracy says.
"That doesn't justify all those lies you said to her. She's my girlfriend, and I am telling you to back off before things get uglier," Zach says, once again in a serious tone. Ok,
"Yeah, like I'm gonna listen to you. I'm gonna deal with you if that's what you want," Tracy says in a confident tone that could seem like she's trying to test Zach's temper.
"I'm gonna let the principal deal with you instead for causing all this trouble," Zach says. "Hands off before things get ugly."
I feel Tracy's hands slowly letting go of my long hair. Meanwhile, Junghwa had been holding my hands the whole time. His eyes looked so concern with his forming a frown. Looking at him, I feel embarassed that he had to see me in this state, where I am a mess with spaghetti all over my face and outfit.
"Let's go," Junghwa whispers to me, before he drags me out of the cafeteria.
A few minutes later...
Junghwa stood outside of the ladies' room as he waits for Ara to finish cleaning herself up. He really got furious when he saw Tracy pulled her hair and Bianca spilled spaghetti all over her. He was about to go after them alone when Zach decided to follow him, resulting in the two splitting their own work, with Junghwa holding Ara and Zach trying to confront those mean girls.
Just then, Ara opens the door of the ladies' room, revealing herself with a now-cleaned face. Though she still has some spaghetti sauce stain on her white t-shirt, her face looked like she just got out of the shower. In fact, Junghwa was a bit surprised to see her after getting herself clean. It's actually the first time Junghwa gets to see her without any make-up, in which he had never seen before in real life. If she wasn't wearing any make-up, that would be during their night time video calls. He was surprised that she didn't seem to be much different when she wore make-up. In fact, he found her natural self to look simply beautiful, and attractive in her own way. In his mind, the girl didn't need any make-up, since she already looks flawless.
Ara sighs. "Thanks for helping me out back there."
"Hey, don't mention it," Junghwa says. "It's the least I could do to a friend."
The word "friend" starts rushing inside of Ara's mind, giving her again mixed emotions. She couldn't lie to herself that she didn't like hearing that from him, not because she was unhappy, but because she wished to be happy by hearing something different. Like tidal waves that went wild, Ara could feel her emotions starting to play roller-coaster with her again, though she tries her best to not focus on that.
"Yeah, thanks," Ara says as she turns her vision down to the ground.
"Well, Zach was also there, so he also deserves to hear that," Junghwa says as he stares at Ara who avoided looking into his eyes.
Thinking of Zach, flashbacks of him confronting Tracy and Bianca starts surfacing back in Ara's mind. Deep inside, she was surprised to see him behaving stern and serious like a grown man portraying the role of her boyfriend. She almost didn't believe that he was the same old Zach who's both childish and cheeky. He stood up for her like a grown man who's ready to handle a fight. Realizing that she has two male best friends who's always ready to protect her, Ara feels beyond lucky.
"Yeah, you're right," Ara says as she slowly lifts up her head to face Junghwa.
Junghwa forms a small smile on his lips as he stares into Ara's eyes. He begin to study her natural look up close, since this is the first time he's actually seeing her so close without any make-up. He is still amazed by how his best friend could look this attractive in a natural look. As a player, Junghwa usually didn't notice the girl who would go out without make-up or even have a sense of fashion, yet this is the first time he found himself to find a girl without make-up and wearing a t-shirt with sauce stain to look attractive. That's a first time realization for him.
"You should go thank him later," Junghwa says. He realized that he had been staring at Ara for a while now.
Ara became silent for a moment. She remembered that Zach wanted to talk to her later after school. She thought that it would also be a good time for her to thank him.
"Yeah, I will," Ara says.
Hearing that, Junghwa forms a small smile at Ara. He was glad that he and Zach were there to save her on time. Things could have been uglier since Tracy and Bianca both really hated the girl too much.
"Let's just go to class," Ara says.
"Ok," Junghwa says.
With that final word, Ara and Junghwa starts heading to their class. In a silent tension between the two, Ara would glance at Junghwa for some times, only to see his sharp jawline from the side. A simple thing she would often do everytime she gets the chance. To admire him in silence even for only a moment, was enough to make her feel a simple happiness inside.
A few hours later....
After school...
Ara's POV...
I saw Zach already waiting outside of the school building. He has both of his hands inside his pocket while just staring at the students exiting the school. I wondered why did he had to choose a crowded spot to talk to me, but oh well. Might as well just see what he has to say and thank him for confronting Tracy and Bianca.
"Hey," I say as I approach Zach.
Zach turns his head to see me. He smiles at me.
"Hi," Zach says. "All ok now?"
"Yeah," I say. "By the way, thanks for confronting those girls earlier."
Zach smiles. "You're welcome. They really made me sick."
"Well, thanks again," I say. "So what did you want to talk about?"
Hearing that, Zach took a deep breath. He stares back at me with his eyes looked as if he has a thousand thoughts going on his head. He turns his head to the left side for a moment, as his face starts to look a bit nervous in this moment.
"Ara, there's actually something I want to tell," Zach says.
"What is it?" I ask him.
"Regarding our pretend relationship, I was thinking that maybe we could do something about it," Zach says.
"Umm...ok. Like what?" I ask him with a bit of confusion.
"I was thinking that we could actually turn it into a real relationship," Zach says. "What do yo think?"
I pause for a moment, a bit surprised. I didn't really expect him to say this all of a sudden. He made me speechless. Looking at me just staring at him in silence, Zach sighs. Suddenly, he put both of his hands on my shoulders, only making me more confuse.
"Ara, there's something I gotta tell you," Zach says.
"What?" I ask him.
"I like you," Zach says.
To be continue...